Nigeria probes NGOs after US Republican's terror financing claim

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Nigeria's House of Representatives is probing the finances of several NGOs after an American congressman made widely panned claims that the main US development agency financed terrorism in the West African nation.

In a letter dated 10 March sent to NGOs and seen by AFP, the lower chamber of the Nigerian parliament said it had set up a committee to "investigate the allegations against United States Agency for International Development (USAID)".

Congressman Scott Perry claimed in February that USAID channelled funds to terror groups in several countries, including Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The claims were widely considered baseless by experts and come amid a conservative-led push against international aid on political grounds that has seen USAID largely dismantled.

Boko Haram has been waging a 15-year insurgency for an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, which has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million more.

The Nigerian House committee demanded 10 years of bank statements from 2015 to 2024, annual financial statements, and "full particulars and contact details" of all NGO officials.

It also asked the organisations to submit details of their income, expenditure, and information on their external auditors.

An official from one of the organisations that received the letter told AFP on Tuesday that the committee lacks the power to probe its finances.

"We suggest that the Ad-Hoc Committee may wish to turn its attention to the statutory bodies within its constitutional scope," said Auwal Ibrahim Musa, the executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and head of anti-corruption group Transparency International in Nigeria.

His office received the letter on 14 March and has until Friday to submit the requested documents.

 'NO EVIDENCE' 

Congressman Perry's claim was widely reported by Nigerian media and spurred anti-American sentiments in the country's northern region, where more than a decade of Islamist insurgency has caused a humanitarian crisis.

The US ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, told the influential Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) in February that there was "no evidence" linking USAID to terror financing.

USAID funded several programmes that have been carrying out "strategic efforts to decrease conflict and instability and promote stability," the US embassy in Nigeria said in 2023.

In 2013, the US designated Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation, which allowed it to freeze its assets, block its fundraising, prosecute its members and restrict their travel.

Mills said there are "policies and procedures in place to ensure that USAID funding, or any of our sister fundings - whether it comes from USAID, the Department of Defense or the State Department - is not diverted to a terrorist group like Boko Haram."